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The Art of 
Saving 



BY 

Harvey A. Blodgett 



ST. PAUL 

The Harvey Blodgett Company 
1918 



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Second Edition 



JUL 30 I9i8 v 



COPYRIGHT 1918, HARVEY A. BLODGKTT 



Introductory 

f T has become a trite saying that 
■*■ ours has been a most extravagant 
nation. It required the grim neces- 
sities of war to arouse us to the 
extent of our failings and to cause 
us, each in his own life, to apply the 
remedy. 

Our people committed themselves 
to a vast undertaking when they 
essayed to change about in a moment 
from habits of extravagance to habits 
of thrift. While it cannot be said 
that we mastered overnight the art 
of saving, yet we have shown our 
ability and willingness to rise quickly 
to a most pressing occasion. 

As I conceive it, the national neces- 
sity for thrift will not end when our 
government ceases to need the 
people's savings for its war chest. 

A great new industrial era will 
follow immediately upon peace. In- 
dustrial competition will be keener 
than ever in the world's history. 
There will be vast demands for new 



saved capital to repair the waste 
of war and to capitalize industry. 

There will be new opportunities for 
the thrifty, ambitious individual. 

I believe therefore, that much re- 
mains to be done to inculcate thrift, 
not as a temporary war measure, but 
as a permanent peace measure also. 

With a view to offering practical 
help toward mastering the art of 
saving I have prepared this little 
book. 

It is one result of many years' 
study of the savings proposition. 
Some of the phrases in it I have 
previously used elsewhere and for 
this reason a few readers may come 
occasionally upon a familiar note. 

Harvey A. Blodgett. 

St. Paul, Minnesota, 
June, 1918. 



Summary of Contents 

I. THE ART OF SAVING. Definition 
of an "art" — The prizes that await those 
who master this art — Practice makes per- 
fect — Why is it worth while? 

II. A MATTER OF HABIT. How 

habits are formed — The habit of thinking 
success thoughts — Successful saving a matter 
of habit — Where habit is leading you — 
Your money habits and their effect on your 
future — The results of the saving habit. 

III. THE SAVINGS BANK WAY. 

Why it offers the surest and safest medium 
for building permanent capital — Its advan- 
tages over every other method — Difference 
between simple and compound interest — A 
notable exception: Liberty Bonds. 

IV. CASH AND CREDIT. The neces- 
sity of having both when opportunity pre- 
sents itself — How credit is built — The im- 
portant part it will play in your business 
career — Necessity of maintaining your credit 
under all circumstances. 

V. DECISION. Reaching a decision to 
save nozv instead of putting it off — Having 



a goal — Having a plan to reach it — Making 
the goal. 

VI. LOOKING FORWARD. The won- 
derful opportunities which the future holds 
for the money saver — The world's need of 
new capital — Its need for people qualified 
to become captains of industry. 

VII. COMPOUND INTEREST. How 

it differs in results from simple interest — 
Some examples of the marvels of compound 
interest — The momentum which compound 
interest adds to one's savings — The grand 
results of saving at compound interest. 

VIII. CAPITALIZING WASTE. Des- 
troying things of which riches are made — 
Casting coin after baubles — Redeeming 
waste in every walk of life — Money waste 
and its consequences — The waste of hoarded 
money. 

IX. SAVING AND INVESTING. How 

the speed craze causes financial wrecks — 
Taking counsel of your banker — Danger 
signals — Safe investment methods. 

X. THE ART OF SPENDING. Get- 
ting spending habits under control — Learn- 
ing the value of money — The "charge it" 
evil — The instalment plan — Spending by 
plan. 



XI. YOUR BANK. The aids a bank 
gives its depositors — The importance of be- 
coming identified with a good bank — About 
a savings account — About a checking ac- 
count — The privileges that come with bank- 
ing acquaintance. 

XII. YOUR LIBERTY BONDS. The 

importance of holding them — Owners of 
Liberty Bonds are partners in democracy — 
A sound investment — The wiles of the 
promoter who seeks to trade questionable 
securities for them. 



I. The Art of Saving 



The Art of Saving 

CAVING, with some people, is a 
knack; but with most of those 
who succeed it is an art acquired 
through practice. 

"Art," says the dictionary, "is 
the practical application of knowl- 
edge; the exercise of skill; a system 
of principles and rules for attaining a 
desired end." 

To become skillful in the art of 
saving, as in playing a musical in- 
strument, painting a picture or fash- 
ioning with tools things of beauty 
and utility, requires practice, and a 
WILL to succeed. 

There are grand prizes in store for 
those who master the art of saving; 
indeed, there are so many rewards it 
is a wonder that any of us lack the 
will to claim them. 

Any one who follows the simple 
rules can master this art and hokl 
the key to the door of Opportunity. 

11 



Prizes 

WE often think of prizes as some- 
thing we get through luck or 
little effort. 

Some of the grand prizes of life 
are the home building fund, the 
business capital or the fortune which 
we build by putting common sense 
first in handling our money. 

You have a big ambition. If 
you haven't, get one right away. 

Hang up a prize before your 
mind's eye. 

You will have to master the art 
of saving before you can win it. 

Don't think that because you may 
have "opened" a savings account 
you are a real saver. That is only the 
beginning. 

You have made the right start 
but are you keeping on? Is your 
prize drawing nearer as the weeks 
go by? 

It is said that those who look 
ahead farthest get ahead fastest. 
You must set a goal if you want to 
reach one. Today's decision may 
determine your destiny. 

12 



Practice 

A GREAT many people begin to 
save and fail to get anywhere. 

Many fail because they haven't 
any definite plan. They save "once 
in a while" or at those rare times 
when they have money and no 
pressing wants. 

It would be as sensible to expect 
to learn to play an instrument well 
by practising "once in a while," 
when one has nothing else to do. 

The person who ties his Big Ambi- 
tion to that method of saving has a 
long and weary wait for fortune. 

Saving isn't easy; not at all. One 
who is determined to succeed must 
make up his mind to take the daily 
drill — to practise the simple exercise 
of saving trifles. 

Practice is doing, not dreaming. 
It consists in deciding to save when 
tempted to spend. It is hourly 
exercise in determination, self-re- 
straint, perseverance and economy. 
It results in mastery of the art of 
saving. 

13 



Worth While? 

TV/TUCH has been said about what 
-*■*-*• saving will do to make old age 
— life's evening — happy and com- 
fortable. That alone makes saving 
worth while. 

But what will you gain now 
while mastering the art of saving? 

You will gain mental poise; your 
money senses will become sharpened; 
you will be able to get more out of 
life, to do better with your money, 
to choose paths of w r isdom. 

You will find yourself, after per- 
sistent practice, traveling swiftly to- 
ward the goal of your Ambition, and 
you'll be glad you're on the way. 



14 



II. A Matter of Habit 



A Matter of Habit 

SUCCESSFUL saving is a matter 
of habit. 

A habit is formed by repeating an 
action until it becomes automatic — 
until it repeats itself without effort. 

Habits of mind are formed by 
thinking a certain kind of thoughts 
until it becomes second nature to 
think that particular kind of 
thoughts. 

Thinking a great deal about a- 
chievement helps people achieve. 
Consciously or unconsciously their 
energies are directed where their 
thoughts lead them. 

- But dreams of success come true 
only when backed by actions which 
give those dreams a practical turn 
— actions that curb spending and 
compel saving, actions that are re- 
peated again and again until they 
form habit. 

"Ability" to save is, first, wanting 
to, and then saving constantly until 
the habit is formed. Successful sav- 
ing is a matter of habit. 



n 



Money Habits 

"\ID you do this yesterday: 

Did you spend a little here 
and there, just to gratify fleeting 
desires? 

Did you blithely go into debt for 
something you cannot afford? 

Did you "put off" the conquest 
of your nickels, dimes and dollars 
— the mastery of your will? Did you 
contribute your small coin to some 
one else's fortune? 

Will today be a repetition of yes- 
terday? Habit is made of repetitions. 

Do you ever wonder what kind of 
an old person you will be? 

Just multiply your little, insig- 
nificant, incipient money habits — 
and other habits — by days and days 
like your yesterdays, and you have 
your answer. If that is unpleasant 
to contemplate, change your habits. 

The money habits that rule you 
now, magnified, emphasized, firmly 
fixed, "grown up," will be the foun- 
dation, rock or sand, of your success, 
small or great, plus or minus. 

Which shall it be? 

18 



Your Habits 

WHAT you are in the habit of 
doing is making you what 
you are going to be. 

Think a moment. Wasn't just 
about everything you did yesterday, 
from the time you arose, things which 
you are in the habit of doing? 

Suppose you attempt to go through 
a single day changing every act 
which has become a fixed habit. 
You would not eat your breakfast, 
do your usual work, walk over cus- 
tomary routes, meet familiar faces 
or develop plans on which your mind 
has been intent. The novelty of 
your actions would tire you out before 
noon. You are in the grip of habit, 

You are rushing onward where 
habits are leading you. If they are 
leading you in the wrong direction, 
change them quickly. 

Your habits are taking a firm 
hold on you. Ten years from now 
it will be an enormous task to free 
yourself from them and to establish 
new ones. 

19 



The Saving Habit 

/CULTIVATING the saving habit, 
^* which is a way of saying 
"mastering the art of saving" has 
two distinct advantages. 

It constantly increases one's world- 
ly possessions and provides his work- 
ing capital. 

Also, it sobers his mind, sharpens 
his wits, steadies his aims and pre- 
pares him for his place in the world. 

Saving is a means to ten thousand 
ends. The realization of almost 
every personal ambition depends up- 
on the amount of money one has 
saved and upon the habits which con- 
trol his actions. 

Why not then, form the HABIT 
of Saving? 



20 



III. The Savings Bank Way 



The Savings Bank Way 

TP\URING the hundred years that 
*-^ savings banks have flourished 
in this country, there never has been 
devised a better permanent method 
for saving money and making it 
work for its owner than the good old 
savings bank way. 

If the owner of a deposit is a 
thousand miles away, his interest 
earnings will be added at regular 
periods to his account and will con- 
tinue to earn more interest, without 
attention on his part, 

No one need worry about getting 
his interest the day it is due. Nor 
need he worry for the safety of his 
funds. Money deposited in savings 
banks is very rarely lost. 

A savings deposit is always worth 
one hundred cents on the dollar, 
and always is earning more in interest. 

One does not have to find a way of 
turning one's savings deposit into 
cash, if necessary. It is cash, earning 
interest. 

23 



Adding More 

I F YOU owned a bond, or a mort- 
A gage on some land, or shares of 
stock you would receive "interest" 
or "dividends" once or twice a year. 

But you couldn't add your interest 
or dividends to the face of your bond 
or mortgage or stock. Their principal 
would be a fixed sum to which it 
would be impossible to add small 
amounts. 

You thus would be compelled to 
look for some other method of in- 
vesting your interest or dividends; 
and the temptation to spend them 
always would be present. 

Few can buy stock, a bond or a 
mortgage once a week but anyone 
with a savings account can deposit 
as little as a dollar once a week, 
or oftener if he cares to do so. 

A savings account is ready always 
to take care of any odd sum you want 
to invest. A dollar or two goes in 
this week; then perhaps you get an 
odd amount — some extra money. 
That, too, you can add to your 
permanent capital. 

24 



Simple or Compound 

A T ordinary rates, it takes money 
-**■ at simple interest five to eight 
years longer to double itself than at 
compound interest. 

A bond or mortgage or stock pays 
simple interest. 

A savings account pays compound 
interest. 

Unless you took care to re-invest 
your earnings or dividends promptly 
and safely, and were able to do so, 
your investment at simple interest 
would be no larger at the end of a 
dozen years than at the start. 

It is better, therefore, to have an 
investment which grows through the 
workings of compound interest, than 
one which earns only simple interest. 

A savings account at a good, strong 
bank can be easily and frequently 
added to and results, in the long 
run, in more profit and in larger 
fortune. 

25 



An Exception 

\I7HILE our country is at war 
* * and the Government needs the 
help of every individual, rich or poor, 
in filling the war chest, the one best 
investment in the world is Liberty 
Bonds ; or if one can invest only small 
amounts, War Savings Stamps, 

Here again the savings bank proves 
its worth, not only to the individual 
but to the government. 

For it enables everyone to save 
regularly from his earnings and to 
accumulate sums with which to buy 
Government Bonds as long as money 
is needed for war purposes. 

The savings banks of the nation 
are the thrift stations at which vast 
sums of money are being gathered 
for winning the wan 



26 



IV. Cash and Credit 



Cash and Credit 

COMEWHERE in the future your 
^ opportunity awaits. It may re- 
veal itself at any moment. 

When it comes to a show-down — 
when Opportunity enters your life, 
and the price tag on it names a figure 
that one of your capacity ought to 
have in cash and credit, Will You Be 
Ready? 

Money begets money. It is the 
people with cash and credit who 
embark in successful enterprises, 
who combine savings, interest and 
profit into growing fortune. 

A man without cash and credit 
must stand aside and see others press 
forward to grasp the prizes of life — 
people who, perhaps, have money 
in their hands w r hich he lightly 
passed to them. 

A great many people are looking 
backward, wondering why oppor- 
tunity has passed them by. In most 
cases it was because they failed to 
look forward, save their money and 
provide for the call of Opportunity. 

29 



Credit 

/CREDIT is borrowing power. It 
V^ takes the place of cash in many 
transactions. With cash, it increases 
one's ability to make profits. 

Credit is more than borrowing 
power. It stands also for integrity 
and ability. 

Credit is based upon the posses- 
sion of money and property, integrity 
and ability. 

A person without money or prop- 
erty usually has little credit, even 
if his integrity is well known. He is 
thus denied opportunities for lack of 
money with w^hich to grasp them. 

Business is based largely on credit. 
Responsible concerns do not pay cash 
for purchases, but receive credit, and 
settle in due time. 

They are known however, to have 
cash and property, on which to base 
credit, as well as integrity. This in- 
spires confidence in them, and in their 
ability to meet their obligations. 

Credit is based on capital and 
capital is the result of saving. Sav- 
ing is the first step to good credit. 

30 



Your Credit 

COME day you will need credit. 
You may want to buy or 
build a home, or become a partner 
in a profitable business. 

If your Big Ambition requires a 
sum of cash you can, through the use 
of credit, realize it before you have 
saved all the cash required. 

Perhaps you can realize it when 
you have a little more than half 
the cash necessary. With every dol- 
lar of cash in hand you have also a 
credit, dependent upon your ability, 
integrity and other conditions. 

Credit is not a gift. It is a growth. 
It comes through earnest effort, long 
continued. It can, through some 
lapse of judgment or conscience, be 
lost in an instant. It should be cher- 
ished as a great treasure. He who 
cultivates ability to save and heeds 
the voice of conscience in all his deal- 
ings acquires cash and credit. 

The amount of cash and credit 
you will command years hence will 
depend, not on what you do then, 
but in all the preceding years. 

31 



Get It First! 

/^\NE may easily abuse his credit. 

^*^ Money should not be bor- 
rowed for luxuries. What you can't 
afford to own today you can't afford 
to buy. 

Buying luxuries on credit is in- 
creasing the obligations of the future. 
What reason have you to expect 
that you can pay ill-considered debts 
and, at the same time, take care of 
all the needs the future will bring? 

Receiving credit — borrowing mon- 
ey — implies that one knows just 
where the money is coming from to 
meet the debt promptly when due. 

Those who do not pay debts when 
due lose their credit. 

For luxuries — get the money first! 



32 



V. Decision 



Decision 

ALMOST everyone who is not 
saving now expects to do it 
sometime — when it is "easier." 

But with non-savers it becomes 
harder to save as time goes on; 
habits become more deeply rooted 
in the character, and wants grow 
faster than the income. 

It will never he easier to save than 
right now. 

To be sure, the high cost of living 
is with us. One of the greatest causes 
of high prices is the eagerness of the 
unthrifty to get rid of their money. 
Times are always getting better for 
money savers. 

Down in the depths of your heart 
you know you ought to be a saver, 
— not a spasmodic one, for that 
won't get you anywhere, but a 
consistent money saver. 

You know that your decision to 
be one stands between you and the 
goal of your ambition. 

Decide now* 



35 



Your Objective 

HpHAT Big Ambition of yours — 
whatever it may be, even if 
so broad that it takes the big word 
"Success" to cover it — set it up as 
your goal, and begin at once to work 
toward it. 

You have noticed that it is always 
the ambitious people who get on in 
the world — people who know what 
they want, have a plan for getting it, 
work out their plan, and have enough 
determination to suppress little wants 
in order to provide for a big future. 

Set a goal. Resolve that a year 
from now will find you possessed of 
a certain sum. 

Place the figure so high as to make 
you work hard, but do not place it 
out of reach. 

Test yourself. Find out whether 
you have it in you to set a goal 
and to persist long enough to reach 
it — to get the saving habit. 

36 



Your Plan 

'TPHE success of your plan depends 
not so much on how much you 
have in your pay envelope as on what 
you do with your money. 

Make a budget — so much for liv- 
ing, so much for recreation and so 
much for the savings account. 

Divide the amount you would save 
in a year by the number of pay days. 

Then make good. 

Don't feel discouraged if your 
first year's goal is a small amount 
compared with the fortune you hope 
to win. 

Saving little amounts, despite diffi- 
culties, and doing it regularly, will 
produce a wonderful effect upon 
your character in a year. It will give 
your better nature the upper hand, 
and make it easier to set higher goals. 

Every year you follow this plan 
makes you more efficient and adds 
momentum to your progress. 

37 



Making The Goal 

TT ISN'T the start that makes 
T the goal. 

Many think the victory won when 
they begin to save. 

To be sure one victory is won — 
the victory over the habit of pro- 
crastination which deferred the start. 

But success is made of ten thou- 
sand victories over self. 

If, perchance, you already have 
made your start, but have lagged, 
take a fresh start now. If you have 
a savings account anywhere make it 
a live one. 

Make your goal! 



38 



VI. Looking Forward 



Looking Forward 

/^VUIT looking back. Look forward. 

^ The failures you have made, 
the losses and disappointments you 
have endured, have prepared you 
for the successes you are going to 
make. 

In the great new era this nation 
faces, a place awaits you. 

It is as large as the personality, de- 
termination, ability, capital and credit 
you can bring to it. 

Don't fear that the higher places 
will be overcrowded. On the con- 
trary, there will not be enough people 
qualified to fill them. 

You have no time to lose. The 
better your preparation the higher 
the place you will fill. 

The money savers and character 
builders of today will be in great 
demand in the great new era that is 
dawning. 

Look forward. The days for prep- 
aration are slipping by. 



41 



Wanted: Capital 

TT WILL require vast sums of 
-^ newly saved capital to repair the 
waste of war. 

America, when the war is over will 
send to the far corners of the earth 
her great new merchant ships laden 
with goods made in America. It will 
require vast sums to provide machin- 
ery to make the goods, and men to 
sail the ships. 

New railroads, new cars and new 
engines will be needed to carry on 
the nation's trade. 

New factories, stores and homes, 
the building of which has been sus- 
pended during the war, will spring 
up, evidences of people's thrift. 

The arts of peace resumed, in- 
dustry will need fresh capital with 
which to meet the enormous de- 
mands which will be placed upon it. 

Where will all this capital come 
from? Savings. Capital is money 
saved, nothing more. It is not the 
money of the rich. It is the savings 
of the rich and poor, and all 
between. 

42 



Wanted: Captains 

TT IS the law of life that captains 
-* of industry drop out or pass on 
and that their burdens and responsi- 
bilities fall upon younger shoulders. 

Keen sighted employers appreciate 
the fact that those who have master- 
ed the art of saving have, as well as 
ready cash, much to show for their 
effort in character and ability, the 
things of which big men are made. 

Promotion comes most rapidly to 
those who capitalize their abilities 
in cash and character. 

One who will not save has little 
prospect of being an employer. 

Those who dwarf their talents, 
whose daily choices are for having 
a "good time" rather than a cash 
capital, usually find their prospects 
diminishing as long as the good-time 
idea remains uppermost in their 
minds. 

Industry will need not only more 
capital, but also more captains. 

43 



Carrying On 

HpHE more you think about the 
*- future, and about Opportunity 
and about Success, the more en- 
thusiastic you become about being 
a money saver. 

It would be as sensible to say that 
two and two make five as to say that 
one can go right on spending money 
heedlessly and expect Opportunity 
to halt before him. 

It doesn't require higher mathe- 
matics to figure out where your 
present course is leading you. 

If you have mastered the art of 
saving, you can forecast with reason- 
able accuracy how much of a factor 
you will be in the great days of 
opportunity which are drawing near. 



44 



VII. Compound Interest 



Compound Interest 

\I7"HAT a simple thing is com- 
pound interest: 

When you receive interest, instead 
of spending it you promptly add it 
to your principal, when it also begins 
to earn more interest. 

As you add more interest to your 
principal, you increase the earnings 
from your investment. 

If you have five hundred dollars at 
interest, and spend the interest as 
you get it, your investment always 
stands at five hundred dollars. 

But if you let compound interest 
do its work, your five hundred dollars 
will grow until it doubles itself. 
The longer it grows the larger it 
grows and the faster it grows. 

If you deposit five dollars a week 
at four per cent compound interest, 
you can, after a time, draw out five 
dollars a week and still have all 
the money you deposited, and more. 



47 



Some Examples 

TT DOESN'T seem so very long 
A ago since Benjamin Harrison was 
President. During that time, in 
1891, a woman deposited $2,850 in a 
certain savings institution. Recently 
she presented her bank book with 
that single entry in it and was 
handed $7,349.16, or $4,499.16 more 
than she put in. 

A man saved a nickel a day at 
compound interest. In ten years he 
had $222.56 of which $182.50 was 
money deposited and $40.06 was 
interest. Thus about twenty-two 
cents was added to every dollar he 
saved. 

Suppose a boy of 17 determines to 
save six dollars a week. If only at 
three per cent compound interest 
he will have in his twenty-fourth 
year $1,675, of which $110 will be 
interest. 

Now figure out how much you 
can save, if you try, and how much it 
will amount to at compound interest, 
in five or ten years. 

48 



Momentum 

lV/TONEY growing at compound in- 
^ A terest gathers momentum as 
time passes. 

We have seen how a sum left 
undisturbed for a period of years 
doubles itself, and how fast money 
grows, when you keep on adding 
principal, while interest is compound- 
ed on the growing amounts. 

But there's another thing that 
gains momentum in this interesting 
process. 

You become encouraged by the 
growth of your savings through com- 
pound interest, and economies be- 
come much easier as you practise 
the art of saving; with the 
natural increase in your personal 
earnings as the years go by, you 
find it possible to increase the a- 
mounts of your stated deposits, add- 
ing new momentum and still greater 
results to your effort. 

Your purposes as well as your 
savings gain momentum. 

49 



Grand Results 

TOOK about you and see the 
-" grand results of saving money 
at compound interest. 

Many comfortable homes which 
you pass daily were made possible 
because their owners deposited small 
sums at compound interest, secured 
thus enough for a first payment, and 
then kept right on saving and deposit- 
ing more at compound interest, in- 
cluding the rent they would have paid. 

People who have capital invested 
in prosperous business enterprises, 
in buildings and in lands, got their 
first start, perhaps in most cases, by 
putting savings out at compound 
interest. 

Is compound interest helping to 
make you independent? 



50 



VIII. Capitalizing Waste 



Capitalizing Waste 

TXT'HAT the average American 
* * wastes in his productive years, 
were it saved and the cash equivalent 
invested at compound interest, would 
create a fund sufficient to maintain 
him in ease during his declining 
years. 

And yet the great majority of old 
people are dependent upon others 
for their support; and too many are 
obliged to spend their ripe old age 
in hard toil, and die penniless. 

While yearning for riches, millions 
of people wantonly destroy the things 
of which riches are made. 

They cast glittering coins after 
baubles; they throw treasure into 
scrap heaps — things which have per- 
formed but half their destined service 
for mankind. 

There is no one who could not 
create capital by setting a watch 
over waste. 



S3 



Redeeming Waste 

TTOW much money can you redeem 
-■•■*■ from waste in a year? More 
than you think. Waste is about you 
in many a guise. Put a keen watch 
upon it — capitalize it. 

War-time food conservation has 
demonstrated the possibility of re- 
ducing waste in the kitchen and on 
the dining table; this, too, with 
actual betterment of the health of 
individuals. 

Fuel completely burned; furnaces 
and stoves kept free from soot; lights 
turned off when not in use; old news- 
papers, rags and junk gathered and 
sold — preventing common waste 
causes less drain upon national re- 
sources and adds to money at interest. 

Half worn clothing and discarded 
shoes; hats which could be renovat- 
ed, thrown away; unused apparel 
hanging in closets — these utilized or 
sold would add still more to national 
wealth and to your cash capital. 

By becoming a vigilant monitor 
of waste could you not build a snug 
sum in cash saved? 

54 



Money Waste 

/ TPHE difference between the dol- 
■*■ lar you save and the dollar you 
fritter away is, that the dollar you 
spend gives satisfaction but once and 
the dollar saved gives satisfaction 
all the time. 

You can't save enough this week, 
or next, to cut much figure in a 
fortune. But if you save a little 
each week, your savings w r ill combine 
into figures that will look good in 
your bank book. 

The middle-aged man, mindful of 
his past, will urge you not to waste 
small sums. He will tell you, too, 
with a sigh of regret, what he might 
have accomplished had he, years 
ago, realized the multiplying power 
of trifling sums. 

Only a nickel! But it is a good 
year's earnings on an invested dollar. 
When you thoughtlessly part with 
a nickel do you think how few 
nickels it takes to earn a like amount 
— not once but every year? 

55 



Hoarded Capital 

TTOARDED money is another 
■*■ ■*■ form of waste. 

The country needs every dollar 
of its working capital. To keep 
money out of circulation by hoarding 
is unwarranted selfishness. If all did 
that, business would stagnate for 
want of funds. Money deposited in 
banks ministers to public need. 

Frequently we hear of the losses of 
savings by people who attempt to 
be their own banker. More money 
is lost from pockets and hiding places, 
many times over, than from savings 
depositories. 

Capitalize all the waste you can 
and keep your money in a strong 
bank. Thus your fortune will grow 
while you serve the public good. 



56 



IX. Saving and Investing 



Saving and Investing 

THE speed craze has caused 
many a wreck on the road to 
fortune. Trying to go too fast has 
dashed many hopes to ruin. 

When one withdraws his money 
from the savings bank to "invest" 
it, he takes, indeed, a serious step. 

For he knows, at least, that in 
bank his money is in the safest place 
he can find; he knows also that he 
will never miss a dividend day, and 
that his savings will not go below par. 

But he wants more interest than 
the bank pays; or he is tempted by 
promise of great profit. Perhaps he 
expects to save anew in bank, 
forthwith, for re-investment in a per- 
manent way. 

Let him take counsel with his bank- 
er. He is a rare banker indeed who 
will not give it unselfishly. 

It is a safe rule never to invest in 
securities in which a banker will not 
invest the bank's funds, or in any- 
thing which a bank will not take as 
collateral for a loan. 



59 



Danger Signals 

WHEN anyone wants to sell you 
a "gold brick" he will tell you 
how much more interest it will earn 
for you than the bank will pay. 

If an opportunity to invest must 
be grasped instantly, beware of it. 
The quicker an opportunity must be 
taken, the more closely, usually, it 
should be scrutinized. 

If a stock is sure to "pay big 
dividends" its promoter needn't seek 
your little savings. With merit, he 
can sell it readily to experienced 
capitalists. 

When the promoter baits you by 
telling about the success of million- 
aires like Rockefeller, Henry Ford 
and Du Pont, take time to consider 
and ask your banker's advice. Using 
the names of successful men is an 
old trick and does not add to the 
soundness of the promoter's project. 

Ascertain before buying how easy 
or how difficult it will be to sell se- 
curities offered you and don't take 
the promoter's word for it without 
investigating. 

60 



More Signals 

CTOCKS and securities that are 
advertised in big type and flam- 
boyant circulars are designed usually 
for the inexperienced investor. Bank- 
ers and capitalists require exhaustive, 
indisputable proof of merit before 
they buy. 

The higher the interest return 
claimed for investments offered you 
the more advisable to go slowly and 
seek advice. When a stock is going 
to "advance in price on a certain 
day," shun it. 

Lending money to relatives and 
friends is good sentiment but often 
poor business. Always get security. 

When you buy minority shares in 
a corporation you are placing your 
funds absolutely in the hands of its 
management and betting high on its 
ability and honesty, the sufficiency 
of the concern's capital, the demand 
for its product and the certainty of 
dividends. 

61 



Safe Ways 

HTHERE are, of course, safe and 
•*■ profitable ways to invest your 
money- Much depends, too, upon 
how soon you will need your 
principal again in cash. 

The wisdom with which you make 
investments will determine how soon 
you become independent. 

Making mistakes incurs set-backs 
and often compels a fresh start. 

Think twice and ask advice be- 
fore investing. Be guided by ex- 
perience—preferably someone else's. 

When experience has made you a 
successful investor you will doubt- 
less always continue to save funds 
in your bank account for investment. 



62 



X. The Art of Spending 



The Art of Spending 

OUYING everything you want now 
*J will prevent you from having, 
presently, things you will enjoy more. 

It is a strong person, indeed, 
who has the power to forego little 
wants in order to gratify larger ones 
later on. 

The portion of the income which 
is spent plays no part in the spend- 
er's fortune. 

Getting the most for your money, 
and conquering the tendency to 
spend for trifles' is possible only 
through long practice and self dis- 
cipline. 

Those who, between the ages of 
six and twenty, are thoroughly 
schooled in the art of spending, come 
to the serious part of their life work 
splendidly equipped. 

But those who grow to maturity 
in thoughtless disregard of the value 
of money start to work their way in 
the world chained to a heavy hind- 
rance — a habit which will be a 
drag on their progress. 



65 



"Charge It" 

/^OUNTLESS influences are con- 
^^ stantly at work tempting people 
to spend. The advertising columns 
of the daily papers and of the 
magazines are creating new wants 
on a vast scale. To withstand them 
and keep within the bounds of frugal 
living, demands great strength of 
purpose. 

The ease with which one can say 
"charge it" increases the difficulty of 
wise spending. 

The "dollar-down-dollar-a-week" 
plan of buying, tempts many with 
slim purses to buy what they cannot 
afford. 

The habit of buying on credit piles 
up debt. No one dependent on his 
income should, except in emergen- 
cy, incur debts that cannot be met, 
of a certainty, promptly, 

A good rule is "Pay as you go." 

Governing one's spending by that 
rule will ward off anxious days of 
debt and worry. 

66 



Spending by Plan 

TT IS a mystery why people strive 
* so hard to learn to earn and give 
so little thought to learning to spend; 
and why people will strain every 
nerve to make money and then spend 
it as if they have a written guarantee 
that there will never be an interrup- 
tion of the income. 

We are too much absorbed in 
money-getting plans to give thought 
to spending by plan. 

Children are given a wrong start 
when money is bestowed on them 
lavishly; they miss the great lesson 
of self restraint. 

Many failures would be avoided 
if the faculty for spending wisely 
were cultivated earnestly early in 
life. 

Buying with money you have 
instead of with money you hope to 
get, is a long step toward maintaining 
financial and moral solvency. 

Think twice and challenge the 
necessity of every expenditure. 

67 



A Simple Plan 

T3Y THE simple plan of spending 
*J less than the income and saving 
regularly, it is possible to create a 
fund which will yield a steady in- 
come. 

Thus, careful spending adds to 
buying power. 

The "pay as you go" plan is 
better than the instalment plan 
because one with cash in hand can 
buy for less, and he pays no in- 
terest on the purchase price. Under 
the instalment plan every cent of 
interest paid adds just so much to the 
cost of the purchase. It is a costly 
plan to follow. 

A good way to learn to spend 
is to adopt the "budget system/' 
that is to lay plans for spending and 
to include a savings fund in the plan. 



68 



XL Your Bank 



Your Bank 

/ T S HE seeker for success who tries 
■** to be his own banker makes 
slow progress and encounters many 
pitfalls. 

Banks have helped more people 
succeed than any other single agency. 

Stand in any busy banking room 
and watch the people come and go. 
You will be impressed with the fact 
that they are bent upon errands 
which have to do with building their 
success. 

Among them you will always fincf 
the successful and the prudent. 

Everyone, as early as possible in 
his career, should choose a bank in 
which to build his fortune. 

Those who are too young to make 
a choice of a bank should have it 
made for them. 

The first step in banking, and 
usually the first step toward the goal 
of one's ambition, is the important 
one taken when a bank account 
is opened. 



71 



A Savings Account 

A SAVINGS account with a good 
-*-*■ bank is a safe medium through 
which to gather funds with which to 
earn profit. 

It is a sort of yardstick by which 
one may measure the results of his 
prudence, economy and thrift. 

It is possible, of course, to save 
money without a bank account. A 
growing fortune, however, kept in 
concealment, is in constant danger 
and must run the gauntlet of attacks 
of many enemies. The additions of 
compound interest are also lacking. 

As anyone's bank account grows, 
evidence piles up that his plans are 
working out the right way. 

Savings accounts have brought 
blessings into numberless lives. They 
have laid the foundation for many a 
home and for many a successful 
career. 

The chances are as good today, if 
not better than they ever were, for 
starting a fortune in a savings ac- 
count. 

11 



A Checking Account 

TI7*HEN one reaches the point 
* * where he can profitably main- 
tain a checking account as well as a 
savings account, he has indeed made 
progress. 

A checking account is a medium 
for keeping in safety personal and 
business funds not yet in use, and 
for transferring them to others with- 
out danger of loss by means of the 
bank check. 

Anyone can maintain a checking 
account when his income is large 
enough and his business transactions 
are numerous enough to permit him 
to meet his obligations and maintain 
a fair balance in the bank after 
doing so. 

If funds are drawn upon as fast as 
they are deposited and the balance 
retained is very small a burden 
which is not justified is imposed 
upon the bank. 

A checking account is, in a word, in- 
tended for the care and safe trans- 
mission of active funds. 

73 



Banking Acquaintance 

TT IS a great help to be favorably 
■*• known at a bank. One whom a 
bank knows to be honest, industrious 
and capable has a valuable reference. 

A bank, because of the precision, 
accuracy and integrity with which 
it handles transactions is an excellent 
model. One who tries to square his 
own actions with those of a good 
bank will keep within the bounds of 
safety and prudence. 

Therefore, it is well to cultivate 
an understanding with one's banker. 
He can help the depositor along in 
his career with sound advice, with 
light on investment and business 
problems and with credit when it is 
deserved. 



74 



XII. Your Liberty Bonds 



Your Liberty Bonds 

TN THE years following the con- 
A elusion of the Great War those 
who will look back with the greatest 
satisfaction upon their part in the 
terrible conflict will be the flower of 
the nation's manhood who put aside 
their personal plans and took up 
arms in defense of human liberty. 

A grateful nation can never repay 
its debt to them. 

Those who at home, in defense 
of their country, brought self-denial 
into their lives and spared from 
their pleasures, conveniences and 
necessities that they might invest 
their savings in Liberty Bonds — 
they, too, have put the nation under 
obligation to them. 

But that obligation is one that 
the nation can and will repay, and 
with profit to the lenders. While 
doing their duty they created new 
wealth for themselves. 



77 



Partners in Democracy 

T\/f ILLIONS of people, unaccus- 
***- tomed to saving money and 
unconscious of their ability to do 
so, responded to their country's call 
and economized, and then invested 
the cash results of their economies 
in Liberty Bonds. 

The most honorable "war fortune" 
is one, large or small, represented 
by the ownership of Liberty Bonds. 

The ends of democracy can best be 
served when the people continue to 
hold until their maturity, the bonds 
so aptly called "Liberty" Bonds. 

One who has bought them through 
self-denial and who foregoes tempta- 
tion to sell them is a worthy partner 
in his Government. 

Anyone who parts with them, ex- 
cept in case of dire necessity or in 
order to divert the cash equivalent 
to worthy uses must, indeed, feel a 
keen sense of disappointment in him- 
self or in the circumstances which led 
him to yield them up. 

78 



A Sound Investment 

T7R0M the standpoint of self in- 
-** terest one should hold, tena- 
ciously, his Liberty Bonds. They 
are the soundest investment in the 
world. The bonds of our Govern- 
ment have, in times of peace, gone 
above par. Some of them have gone 
as high as 139. 

When quoted under par it may 
be taken as a temporary condition 
and should not in the least disturb 
one who has invested in this prime 
security. . 

Liberty Bonds will bring the owner 
a fair return on his money, without 
fail. 

They can be used as security for 
loans and will always be a reserve 
against adversity. 

One cannot dispose of his Liberty 
Bonds to buy a safer investment, 
for there is none. 

Why then should one risk a cer- 
tainty? 

79 



The Promoter 

npHE promoter who offers invest- 
-*• ments in exchange for Liberty 
Bonds pays a tribute to their worth; 
his offer proves which he thinks is 
the better security. 

Everyone must always be on his 
guard against the schemes which 
will be devised by promoters to get 
his bonds from him. 

There will be floods of "oppor- 
tunities" to trade one's bonds for 
luxuries and for "sure things" offer- 
ing higher rates of interest. 

Let your "Liberty Bonds," bought 
perhaps with grim self-denial backed 
by patriotism, remain one of your 
solid assets and cherished possessions 
and keep you in the discreet in- 
vestor class. 



80 



oct ; 18 ij 



